So I'll Reach Out for Your Hand (だからぼくは君に手をのばす Dakara Boku wa Kimi ni Te o Nobasu) is the fourteenth episode of the Little Busters!Animation. It aired on January 12, 2013. It is the third and final episode of Mio Nishizono's arc.

Spoiler Warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents

Riki is resolute that he will not forget about Mio, but Midori plays around with his memories of her, leaving him unsure about how much of his memories of her are real. Riki seeks help from Kyousuke, but all he can offer is to tell Riki to not trust anyone but himself for the sake of Mio. Riki suddenly remembers Mio saying she was going to submit a tanka in the school's competition, and discovers that the poem is about the conversation they previously had about the paper airplane. After talking with Midori, Riki realizes Mio is at the beach, where the two reunite. Mio tells Riki how she first "met" Midori as a child, who is in fact an imaginary little sister she created. Mio's mother eventually gets her medical treatment until she finally forgets all about Midori. However, she remembered her after reading the tanka by Bokusui Wakayama about the bird and the ocean, which caused her to black out. After she came to, she realized her shadow was gone. Riki pleads with Mio to come back with him, but she refuses and turns into a bird, flying away. Riki begins to sob over losing her, but is reinvigorating after receiving a call from Midori. Riki goes into the ocean and locates her, where he once again pleads for her return and ultimately witnesses Mio and Midori becoming one person. Afterward, the two find themselves back on the beach, and Mio has her shadow back. They go back to school and rejoin the rest of the Little Busters.

Eventually everything fades and is forgotten as time wears on. Human memories are some of the flimsiest and most unreliable means of recording history. Memory is an illusion, Midori teaches Riki; it is an illusion that you create that is partially true and partially what you imagine to be true. Riki is forgetting about the real Mio; it is only through sheer stubbornness that he remembers that the Mio in the classroom is actually Midori. Everyone else has already forgotten that the other Mio lived at all. Many guys have fallen in love with her outgoing personality and her smile.

Midori really only shows her real side to Riki because she knows there is no point pretending to be Mio when she is talking to him. Midori has fun talking with Riki; she toys with his feelings and his memories. She forces Riki to second guess what his real memories about the real Mio actually are. She gets him thinking that Mio wears red bean paste colored glasses, then tells him that she was joking, and then made him second guess her again when she said that she was joking about joking. Riki is very confused and doesn’t know who or what to believe right now. Midori just proved how simple it is for implant something about Mio into his mind which would cause him to forget the real thing. Midori could go further and completely make Riki forget about Mio right now, except that she doesn’t. She gives off the feeling that she wants someone to remember Mio and is holding out for Riki to bring her back.

There is only one person Riki trusts above all others and that is Kyousuke. Kyousuke can solve any problem, Riki believes. He confides with Kyousuke about how it feels like the world is transparent and his fears about forgetting the real Mio. Kyousuke simply can’t imagine what Riki is going through because he doesn’t see how the world is transparent; he does however know that Midori and Mio are two different people. There is nothing that Kyousuke can do to help Riki by forcing Midori to show them where Mio is. He knows that if he talks to Midori, then his memories will change as he is talking to her and he would think that Midori is the real Mio, just like everyone else does. Riki has to solve this problem by himself, but Kyousuke tells Riki a hint. Riki needs to trust nothing that anybody tells him; he needs to have faith in his own memories. He needs to have the strength to remember Mio, only then can he bring her back.

Kyousuke’s advice sustains Riki over the next few days. He still remembers Mio, but his memories are fading away with each coming day until he begins to question his own memories. He wonders if he imagined the beautiful girl sitting beneath the tree reading books was only his own imagination. But wait, suddenly as Riki is remembering Mio he remembers a conversation that he had with her about the Tanka poems. Mio said that talking with Riki gave her the inspiration to write a poem for the upcoming contest. This is Riki’s last ditch effort; he runs to the contest hall and begs the person in charge there to allow him to see the poems. The person in charge is already taking down the poems, but she gives Riki the time to browse the poems before taking them down.

Riki is walking through the rows of poems. There seems to be at least a hundred different entries. Riki does not give up hope and then he finally comes across the poem that Mio entered. He reads it and is instantly brought back to a time when he was talking with Mio about where he would go if he could go anywhere on a paper airplane. Mio turned that conversation into a poem. This poem is the proof that Riki needed that a girl named Nishizono Mio actually once lived. As if waiting for Riki to find the poem, Midori steps up to him and asks if he really wants to go where Mio is. Riki affirms that he would like nothing more. Midori asks Riki why the sky is blue if the sky is transparent. Why is the water blue if water itself is clear like glass? The answer is not given.

Riki is taken to the beach where he last saw Mio. There he finds Mio beneath her parasol completely alone. Mio was not expecting to see Riki ever again, but she is happy. She thanks him for remembering her. Riki says that he came here to bring her back. Mio says that she is glad when Riki told her the stories of the early years of the Little Busters. She wishes that she could have joined them, but she also tells Riki that Midori can take her place and become a member instead. Riki doesn’t want Midori in the Little Busters. Above all, Riki desires to bring Mio back.

Mio decides to tell who and what Midori is. Back when Mio was really young, she loved reading books as she does now. She didn’t have any friends, her imagination was her friend. One day Mio looked over her shoulder and saw her reflection moving on its own. Of course it wasn’t really moving, but Mio’s fantasy stories presented the possibility of this event. Thus the birth of Midori was born. Midori is actually Mio’s imaginary friend; when she stepped out of the mirror the two were inseparable. Midori adopted the backstory of being Mio’s little sister. They played everyday and it was like new life was breathed into Mio.

Mio’s mom became very concerned and took her to see doctors specialized in the area of imaginary friends. Mio underwent numerous trials and took medicine. As this was going on, the time that Mio saw Midori decreased; at first it was once every three days, then once a week. Soon it became normal for Mio not to see Midori. And then one day Mio forget Midori altogether.

Mio was a dead person after this. She went through the motions of life with no goal in mind. Everything changed one day when she read a poem in class about a white bird and the endless blue sky and ocean. Mio remembered Midori; it was like suddenly getting a part of your body that you never new existed. From that day onward, Mio walked beneath a parasol. She remembered Midori, but she still couldn’t see her. Mio waited because she knew that Midori was going to come back one day and when that day came, it would be Mio’s turn to disappear. She has been waiting for this moment for a long time. When the day came for Midori’s return, Mio was already friends with the Little Busters and was reluctant to leave.

When the story ends, Mio is going to go through with her plan to give Midori life. Mio still considers her life to be meaningless. Midori is the one that should live. The world is already being recreated to make so that Midori was always there. The last piece that needs to be placed is Mio’s disappearance to finish the plan. Riki isn’t going to allow Mio to leave him, but Mio says goodbye and turns into a white bird and starts flying into the sky. Riki is crying, as he is crying his memories of Mio are being erased. He knows that with ever tear that he sheds another memory is gone. He doesn’t want to cry, but he can’t stop.

Riki’s cell phone rings. He answers to find Midori on the other end. Midori can hear Riki crying. She reminds him that he can’t waste any time crying now; he has a goal that he needs to accomplish. If Midori really wanted to steal Mio’s place in the real world, then she could have easily made it happen here and numerous other times. Instead, she gives Riki a push to chase Mio and bring her back. Riki thanks Midori and promises never to forget her, just as he never forgot Mio when everyone else was. Midori’s voice is heard one last time.

Riki runs across the beach and launches himself into the ocean. He remembers when he wanted to disappear like Mio, but back then he was saved when Kyousuke reached out for his hand. Now it is Riki’s turn to do the same for Mio. All along Mio wanted to be friends with other people. She wanted to be like Midori and was too scared to act. Midori can see the real nature that is inside of Mio and she and Riki are able to bring Mio back. When Riki wakes up, he is lying face down on the beach. Mio is beside him crying over Midori. Their shadows have merged into one. Mio is going to live in this world to the best of her abilities form now. Riki has succeeded in bringing the real Mio back. The Little Busters are waiting for them at school. Mio doesn’t use her parasol anymore; it remains in her room beside her towers of books. And Midori was never forgotten again.